Alex Franco
Sports Editor
The past two weeks of men’s basketball has been more of the same of what we have come to expect from Coach Jim Saia and the Cougars.
The team began a three game stretch on Jan. 23 in a road game against Point Loma Nazarene, which the cougars won 81-64, shooting an astounding 50 percent from the field and hitting 7 three pointers to outpace the Sea Lions of PLNU.
Point guard Danny Redmon led all CSUSM scorers with 16 points and 3 assists. Joining Redmon in the double-digit department were forward Jacob Ranger and guard A.J. Gaspora scoring 15 and 13 points, respectively.
Two days later on Jan. 25, the Cougars hosted UC Santa Cruz in front of a capacity and loud crowd at Mira Costa College. The Banana Slugs kept the game close for the first half as they only trailed the Cougars by 8 at halftime,
CSUSM would allow UCSC to stay in the game long when they opened the second half with a run that led to a 31 point lead midway through the second half and never looked back cruising to victory in a blowout and winning the game, 99-56 for their tenth straight victory.
Quincy Lawson was the standout performer in the match with 12 points and 12 rebounds, recording the first double-double of the season for any CSUSM player. The game also featured every player on the roster registering a score for the second game in a row and five CSUSM players scoring in double digits. Danny Redmon once again led the team with 19 points followed by Jose Rivera with 15 points. The 43-point margin of victory and 99 points scored overall were both school program records at the time, until the Cougars played their next game.
The final game of January proved to be a special one indeed as the Cougars’ had a record night for the second straight game trouncing the visiting La Sierra 111-71 in front of another large home crowd. The 111 points scored, obliterates the previous school record for total points scored which was set the previous game against UCSC. The 40-point margin of victory fell short of the school record of 43, also set in the previous game.
The Cougars came out swinging right from the get go, jumping out on a 12-4 run within minutes of the opening tip-off forcing an early timeout called by La Sierra. CSUSM was up as many as 24 in the first half leading to a 60-38 first half lead at the break. The second half saw much of the same as the cougars kept the pedal to metal and piled the points on, leading by as many as 44 towards the waning minutes of the game.
The men’s basketball team continued its phenomenal shooting performances over the past few games with another great night of shooting, making 52 percent of their shots taken from the field. Quncy Lawson scored 18 points to lead all scorers in the contest on 9-13 shooting, with 6 rebounds and 2 blocks and 2 steals. A.J. Gaspora continued his hot shooting with another double-digit performance, scoring 17 points on 7-11 shooting and 3-6 from 3-point range.
The games high point was Adam Alfaro’s stretch in the second half, where he wouldn’t be denied and sunk 4 three point shots in a row on his way to a season high 15 points. Danny Redmon contributed great point guard play, dishing out 9 assists to his teammates, marking it yet another game where all players scored a point and six players scored in the double digits.
The win was the Cougars eleventh in a row and 14 of their last 15 games. The Cougars take to the road for their next five games and won’t return home until the final game of the season on Feb. 23 when they take on Bethesda.